First Friday: May 2023
Inspiration & Updates from Artist Brian Madden
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”
Bill Bryson
I’m currently writing to you from tomorrow in Sydney. So what better way to start than by sharing these words from the author of In a Sunburned Country, a loving account of Bryson’s visits to Australia.
My wife Jen’s career brought us here for the better part of the next 4 months, and I’m treating it like an unexpected art residency. I brought a tote bag full of art supplies and an open mind to receive whatever inspiration the trip brings.
You’re receiving this international edition of the First Friday newsletter because you’ve supported my artwork, visited my studio exhibitions, or signed up to stay in touch. Thank you for all of it.
This month is going to be a trip. Below I’ll share:
What I’m seeing: Visual language in Sydney and San Francisco
What I’m reading: Leap Before You Look / Anthony Meier Fine Art
What I’m showing: Chaos in the Air at Bass & Reiner gallery
What I’m hearing: Global sonic inspiration, overheard this month
WHAT I’M SEEING: Visual language in Sydney and San Francisco
When I travel to a new place, the most mundane things seem magical, and I was touched by Bill Bryson’s words expressing that very feeling.
On our first day walking around Sydney, I couldn’t help but stop again and again and again to take photos of spray-painted utility markings on the sidewalks.
Trying to find the meaning behind the colorful markings, I found this article explaining the Sydney street scribbles. Though I was initially struck by their visual impact, my research revealed these markings are purely functional, used to mark pipes and other key info for construction safety purposes.
While I know it’s not a totally unique concept, I love that Australians have incorporated such a striking visual language into such a down-to-earth process. And even though it’s a mundane sight in Sydney, the street scribbles stand as a good example of the novelty that comes from experiencing a new place, and the creative inspiration that can come along with it.
They reminded me of this public art installation by Leah Rosenburg I saw for the first time at SFO (San Francisco) International terminal G gate 5 before flying to Sydney. Rosenburg created a vibrant vocabulary of painted colors and patterns representing the sights of San Francisco, telling a dynamic story across a massive wall.
Beyond color alone, another form of visual language is marked by a curated collection of shapes and design elements, often called a ‘toolkit’ in the design world. After installing at Bass & Reiner, I was lucky enough to catch London-based Argentinian artist Sofía Clausse’s fantastic work before the opening of her solo exhibition at Municipal Bonds. The gallery’s founder & director Emily Miller and I wondered aloud whether Sofía’s brand design experience might have inspired her to create something of a dynamic toolkit of visual elements to incorporate into her artwork.
I’m starting this month energized by the way visual languages and toolkits can be created by both fine artists and construction crews to tell meaningful stories and protect people from harm. And although I know the early inspiration found in this new chapter in Sydney is temporal by nature, like pre-excavation construction markings, I can feel the landscape of my creative practice changing for good.
WHAT I’M READING: Leap Before You Look / Anthony Meier Fine Art
I first met Anthony Meier at Fog Art Fair in San Francisco, and then had the opportunity to visit his new gallery space in Mill Valley to talk art and check out the inaugural show, In the Shadow of Mt Tam. He invited me back again to leaf through the gallery’s extensive art book library, so I decided to make good on his invitation for my last artist date before leaving for Sydney.
Tony’s welcoming team set me up with a spot in front of an epic Gerhard Richter woven tapestry and a Larry Bell sculpture in their beautiful gallery space and let me loose. As I scanned the shelves, the first book to catch my attention was Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933-1957 by Helen Molesworth, a beautiful account of the amazing story arc of Black Mountain College.
Coincidentally, I referred to Black Mountain College in my April 2023 newsletter as the jumping off point for influential artist Ruth Asawa’s fantastic career. I was so glad to be able to finally read Leap Before You Look after seeing it on a bookshelf at the Blue Ribbon Studio in my Nike days.
Devouring the innovative school’s illustrious lineage, the storyline of Josef & Anni Albers caught my attention. The Albers’ were invited to teach at Black Mountain College, emigrating to the US after the Nazi party pressured the Bauhaus to close. Over the years, they traveled extensively and were especially inspired by their journeys through Mexico.
Josef said, “Mexico is truly the promised land of abstract art. For here it is already 1000s of years old.” They celebrated the local culture, traditional craft, and ancient architecture through their own blends of modernist artwork. Their work honored and reconstructed the traditional artwork they saw, through their unique creative lenses and their respective mediums, paint for Josef and textile for Anni.
I’m planning to bring that same Albers energy to my stay here in Australia. I want to explore with an open mind and make the most of wherever this time leads me. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the magic in the mundane during our days in Sydney, and the expansive inspiration that comes from such a new adventure.
WHAT I’M SHOWING: Chaos in the Air at Bass & Reiner gallery
Meanwhile in San Francisco… something wild went down at Bass & Reiner. For context, my friend Jacob Ouillette and I had been trading studio visits lately, in between stopping by art shows around SF. Then Jacob texted me one day, saying he had been pulled into a crazy group art show at Bass & Reiner called Pyramid Scheme. He asked if I wanted to join the MLM madness.
B & R founding partner Chris Grunder created a chaotic concept for an art show in which 3 artists install their work and then each invite 3 other artists, who in turn each invite 3 more, who each invite 3 more, until there are literally hundreds of artists installing work in the same tiny space. I didn’t even need to do the math to see that it was already pure chaos.
I decided to contribute my marble inlay mosaic Air Jordan 1 “Chicago” sculpture, originally created for my presentation during NTWRK Sneakercon 2021. This special piece resulted in this art commission for my alma mater, Nike.
As I searched high and low for a spot to display the sculpture, Chris’s poet friend & impromptu assistant curator, Will, asked me "complementary or contrasting?” Instinctively, I responded “contrasting,” looked upward, and so did he. We went high, installing the sculpture in a great spot on the highest horizontal open surface we could find. But given the show’s rapidly growing pyramid-shaped roster, I was sure my little contrasting corner of clarity wouldn’t last long.
And neither will this momentary combination of artists. So if you find yourself in San Francisco over the course of May or June 2023, I invite you to check out this wild show at Bass & Reiner, and the rest of the galleries in and around Minnesota Street Project while you’re at it. This is also the first group show I’ve shown my work in San Francisco. Grateful to Jacob for the invitation!
And speaking of chaos…
WHAT I’M HEARING: Global sonic inspiration from the past month
My days and nights are fueled by music, so I wanted to share this overheard playlist compiled during the past month. I heard these songs on both sides of the globe, in coffee shops and dance clubs from San Francisco to Sydney, and I hope you can find something in it for yourself.
Each First Friday Playlist can only come from songs I’ve heard, received, discovered, or rediscovered out in the world. Songs overheard at coffee shops, bars, and gyms, received from friends IRL and online, or jotted down thanks to patient buds, baristas and bartenders. And I’d count this newsletter as public too. We do take requests :)
If you know anyone who’d appreciate some monthly visual & sonic inspiration from my studio, please feel free to share and invite them to subscribe.
And if you have any friends in Sydney you think I should connect with while I’m here, please send me their way!
Thanks for reading. See you out there,
Brian
brian@brianbmadden.com
Loved this entire thing, good job!!
OMG what!? I love that book!